The invention relates to an exterior mirror of a motor vehicle and, more particularly, to an exterior mirror having a mirror casing which is fastened by way of a mirror base to a vehicle body wall and is connected, by way of webs, with an air guiding ring which, forming an air gap between the air guiding ring and the mirror casing, surrounds an area of the mirror casing.
An outside mirror of this type is disclosed in German Patent document DE-AS 1028898 in which an air guiding ring surrounds the mirror casing of the exterior mirror at a distance forming an air gap and is fixedly connected with the mirror casing by way of several webs. DE-AS 1028898 does not indicate how the mirror casing is fastened to a vehicle wall. It would appear that the rearview mirror or the mirror glass of the exterior mirror is fixedly connected with the mirror casing, as in the second embodiment of this publication. In the second embodiment, an extended air guiding ring and the mirror casing are connected in an angularly adjustable manner by way of a spring/screw connection with a mirror base fastened to the vehicle body, so that, as a result of an angular adjusting of the mirror casing, the rearview mirror fixedly connected with the mirror casing can be manually adjusted to an angular position favorable for viewing lateral traffic. So that, in the case of the first embodiment, in which the air guiding ring should be fixedly connected with the mirror casing, the rearview mirror will also be angularly adjustable, the mirror casing, as in the second embodiment in which the air guiding ring is extended, should be connected with a mirror base in an angularly adjustable manner by way of the spring/screw connection. The favorable angular position can be set individually and is a function of the height and longitudinal position of the vehicle seat, in which a person is situated who is sitting in the front in the passenger compartment of the vehicle and who is observing the lateral traffic by way of the exterior mirror. If the mirror casing is adjusted to a favorable angular position, it may be in an aerodynamically unfavorable position, in which an air current flowing, for example, through the air gap between the air guiding ring and the mirror casing causes air or whistling noises, and/or the aerodynamic drag of the exterior mirror is increased.
During the angular adjustment of the mirror casing in the second embodiment, the separately angularly adjustable air guiding ring may accidentally be adjusted to an angular position in which an air current flowing through the air gap between the air guiding ring and the mirror casing causes air or whistling noises and/or the aerodynamic drag of the air guiding ring is increased. It can also not be easily or not at all recognized whether the air guiding ring is in an aerodynamically favorable position. Pedestrians passing by the vehicle may thoughtlessly or accidentally misadjust the mirror casing and the air guiding ring jointly or, in the case of a separate arrangement, independently of one another, so that, in this case, the rearview mirror fastened to the mirror casing has to be readjusted to a favorable angular position by at least one angular setting of the mirror casing. Bodies, such as fairly large raindrops or hailstones, impacting on the air guiding ring and/or the mirror casing, for example, at a fairly high speed during the driving operation, may also possibly misadjust the air guiding ring or the mirror casing such that a viewing of the lateral traffic by way of the exterior mirror is not possible or is limited.
European Patent document EP 0 114 130 A1 describes a remote-controllable rearview mirror of a motor vehicle having a stationary mirror casing and a mirror which is connected on its circumference with sealing bellows, which permit an angular alignment of the mirror and which are fastened to the mirror casing at their other edge area. For example, the not watertight guiding of a cable through an opening in the front area of the mirror casing to a mirror adjusting device in the mirror casing and the aerodynamically unfavorable formation of the outer contour of the bellows demonstrate that the rearview mirror can only be an interior rearview mirror arranged in the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle.
It is an object of the invention to provide an exterior mirror of a motor vehicle which prevents or at least makes difficult an unintentional misadjusting of the rearview mirror arranged in the mirror casing, and which exterior mirror, in particular, is aerodynamically more favorable.
This and other objects are achieved by an exterior mirror of a motor vehicle having a mirror casing which is fastened by way of a mirror base to a vehicle body wall and is connected, by way of webs, with an air guiding ring which, forming an air gap between the air guiding ring and the mirror casing, surrounds an area of the mirror casing. The rear edge of the air guiding ring is arranged at a distance behind the rear edge of the mirror casing supporting a lateral rearview mirror. The air guiding ring and the mirror base are fixedly connected with one another or at least fixed with respect to one another and, by way of a position finding device, the mirror base is arrangeable in a largely precise position on the vehicle body wall and is fastenable by way of at least one fastening element to the vehicle body wall.
The exterior mirror of a motor vehicle according to the invention has a mirror casing which is fastened by way of a mirror base to a vehicle body wall, for example, to a vehicle door with which the mirror casing is fixedly connected. The mirror casing is fixedly connected, for example, by way of webs, with an air guiding ring which, forming an air gap between the air guiding ring and the mirror casing, surrounds an area of the mirror casing. By way of a position finding device, the mirror base is to be arranged in a largely precise position on the vehicle body wall and is to be fastened by way of at least one fastening element to the vehicle body wall.
The position finding device has, for example, at least two position finding elements, one position finding element, for example, being a positioning pin, which can be fitted through a passage opening at the vehicle body wall into a pin opening in the mirror base, or being a fastening screw, which can be screwed through a centering opening at the vehicle body wall into a thread in the mirror base. The position finding element may also be a centering element, which is constructed or arranged on the mirror base or the vehicle body wall and interacts with a counter-centering element on the other part, on the vehicle body wall or on the mirror base. The fastening element for fastening the mirror base to the vehicle body wall is, for example, a fastening screw which may also be a position finding element of the position finding device, for example, if the fastening screw, which is fitted through a screw opening at the vehicle body wall and is screwed into a thread in the mirror base, fixes the mirror base in a sufficiently precise position at least in areas at the vehicle body wall. A fastening screw and/or a positioning pin can be produced or purchased at reasonable cost.
A passage opening may be formed in the mirror base, which passage opening leads from a feeding opening in the vehicle body wall into the mirror casing, by way of which passage opening an electric circuit and/or at least one mirror adjusting element is connected with a manual or motor-driven adjusting device in the mirror casing, which, when activated, adjusts the rearview mirror. In this manner, the air guiding ring as well as the mirror casing are constantly fixedly connected with one another and with the mirror base, and the mirror base is arranged by way of the position finding device in a largely precise position on the vehicle body wall and, by way of at least one fastening element, is fastened to the vehicle body wall in a sufficiently stable manner. The air guiding ring and the mirror casing as well as the mirror base can be constructed and arranged in an aerodynamically favorable manner, whereby the aerodynamic drag of the exterior mirror is correspondingly reduced, and bothersome air and/or whistling noises of the air flowing around the exterior mirror and through the air gap are prevented or are reduced, for example, at fairly high driving speeds such, that they cannot be noticed or can hardly be noticed, and therefore, also in this case, acoustically cannot have a disturbing effect.
In the event of a, for example, accidental striking against the exterior mirror of the standing vehicle by a person walking by, neither the air guiding ring nor the mirror casing or the mirror base can be misadjusted. Also, bodies impacting on the air guiding ring or the mirror casing or the mirror base, such as fairly large raindrops or hailstones, in the driving operation cannot misadjust the air guiding ring and the mirror casing as well as the mirror base. A mirror glass, for example, forming the rearview mirror of the exterior mirror may be connected by way of an electric circuit and/or at least one mirror adjusting element with a manual or motor-driven adjusting device in the mirror casing, which, when activated, adjusts the rearview mirror. The rearview mirror or the mirror glass is arranged in the air guiding ring in a protected manner, so that there is no risk that persons carelessly walking past the standing vehicle accidentally misadjust the rearview mirror or the mirror glass of the exterior mirror. Should, for example, a person strike the exterior mirror from the rear, if at all, the person would only come in contact with the rearward edge area of the stationary air guiding ring which preferably protrudes toward the rear beyond the rear edge area of the mirror casing and the rearview mirror and is preferably rounded in order to prevent injury in the event of a contact with a person.
Between the rear edge of the mirror casing and the circumferential edge of the rearview mirror, bellows may be arranged which, on the one side, are fastened or supported on, for example, clipped to the mirror casing and, on the other side, on the circumferential edge of the rearview mirror. The aerodynamically unfavorable contour of the bellows does not have, or hardly has, an acoustically unfavorable effect because the air current flowing past is limited by the air gap between the air guiding ring and the mirror casing and can be aerodynamically optimized by a corresponding design of the air gap. The bellows permit an arrangement and a construction of the rearview mirror in which the mirror casing and the bellows, from the direction of the viewing side of the rearview mirror, are completely covered by the rearview mirror and the air gap is not or is hardly visible. In a simple manner, a view through the air gap can be prevented in that the wall of the air guiding ring bounding the air gap and the wall of the mirror casing bounding the air gap have a construction that is correspondingly curved in the same direction, which walls may have the same distance or different distances at different places. The rear edge of the air guiding ring is arranged, for example, at a distance behind the rear edge of the mirror casing supporting a lateral rearview mirror.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.